Just want to thank everyone for all the advice that's been posted in answer to my query. Sorry I haven't replied earlier; it's my first post on here and I thought I would get notifications to my email of replies sent but it seems that you don't get notifications.
This might help : Go to "profile">Notifications and Email(in the left sidebar) > Check the boxes that you need.
So you bought a hardware wallet but you didnt buy your first bitcoin yet? Thats new to me because most of the people first end up getting some bitcoin from some source or other and then look out for secure ways of keeping those coins, majority are people who are putting their money in the future value of bitcoin and altcoins.
You might want to check out the local rules and regulation about crypto first before you start buying anything. In many countries bitcoin is not clearly legal, although they cannot do anything about it.
Next thing would be to find an exchange that accepts your local currency. If you are going to trade p2p make sure to use a trusted escrow. Always be safe and never send first to anybody asking you to do so unless you trust them completely. Remember that once you have send someone some coins they are irreversibly transferred.
Thanks for the very useful advice.